Japan's "resilience" to the catastrophe of the Tohoku Earthquake is widely praised, and looked at as a model. But looking at statistics, and talking to Japanese people, I discovered that this so-called and much-admired "resilience" hides a different, and tragic, reality.

I know, Vietnam sounds like a bad word, but it is not quite as bad as it sounds… not anymore. Let's make it clear: yes, communists still run the country. But times are changing, as Bob would say. The Regime is divided and on the brink of a schism: while the old-timers, those who hold fast to the torch of ideology and proudly look back at the 70's, are now carrying the weight of their own eighties, a new and more liberal generation of politicians increasingly occupy the scene…

Is it true, as it is often said, that the US have a short history, and no antique monuments to bring them back in time? Don’t we forget that nature too has a history? Don’t we forget that nature too has its monuments? The Senator was one of them. “Was”, because on January 16, 2012, the oldest pond cypress tree in the world bade farewell to the land, and smoked up to heaven. It was 3,500 years old.

On the eve of the jump into 2012, some look at the events and circumstances of the past year to evaluate them and make resolutions for the coming year. Two general trends emerge during this process. The first is disappointment, as if our memory and imagination were endowed with a greater ability to look back on the pain rather than the joy. The second, less common, is a kind of exaltation as if everything had been perfect, all pre-established plans had worked, everything was under control.

By Erica Tighe December 16, 2011
Volunteer with Heart's Home in Salvador da Bahia – Brazil – Letter from September 2011

I remember walking in Chicago with my big puffy coat and seeing the people sleeping on benches in the cold snow. I would walk past and think to myself that I couldn't give my jacket because it was freezing and I needed it. I was accustomed to give to Goodwill my old clothing, clothes I didn't use anymore. But never things I was still wearing. In fact I never even gave things that "maybe one day I will need to use even though it's been hanging in my closet for a year with the tags still attached."